Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, pandering to a crowed of tea partiers on Capitol Hill, asserts how important it is that “God” has been in the Pledge of Allegiance since 1954. So intent was he to proclaim “God” as key to the Pledge, that he forgot what came next. And he failed to note that the original Pledge dates back to 1892, written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist, expressing the ideas of his cousin, Edward Bellamy, to promote the concept of a socialist utopian world. Also ignored is that “under God” was added to the Pledge in reaction to McCarthyism, communist witch hunts, and the cold war.